Corporation Set Up: General Commerce and Industry

The time has come to set up a Corporation to make life easier and safer to haul items from Jita to Dodixie.

Now that the items i transport from Jita are approaching 80m isk i have decided to move to Contracts to get them couriered from Jita to Dodixie.

For those that don't know, this means contracting out to a third party to haul my items from Jita to Dodixie.  The hauler puts up collateral in isk to the level i specify  and if the hauler successfully delivers the items they are awarded the fee i offered and get their collateral back.  If the hauler fails then i get the collateral.  So, typically i set the collateral at the cost of the items +10%.

It is a lot safer and not too much cost at all.

At the moment, i am offering 1.5% of the collateral as a Reward.  With 1 day to claim plus 1 day to deliver.  So far, i get the items within an hour or so of setting up the Contract.

Maybe i should reduce the Reward to 1% - i suspect with the trade route from Jita to Amarr closed for now due to the invasion then more haulers will be focusing on the remaining Trade routes.  And my items rarely take up more than 100m3, so a small fast ship can do them very easily.

I already have an alt with no skills based in Jita - so he can have one contract running at a time.

To make this a smooth process i set up a Corporation with both my Main and Alt as members.

The Main at Dodixie will transfer surplus isk to the Corporation.  The Alt in Jita will then buy the items on behalf of the Corporation.

Therefore, neither the Main nor the Alt need ever leave their stations to conduct trading for now.

The Corporation is imaginatively called General Commerce and Industry.

i was ganked - back a while ago

I found this lurking in my drafts from quite a while ago (ok, a few months at best).

A fine example of me not practicing what i preach and thinking i could quickly move some raw materials to my production facilities in Sobesaki.

Bottom line is that my T1 Indi was trying to carry 400m ISK of raw materials and got ganked warping off the gate after the jump.

What i like about Eve is the willingness of the players to talk about it and provide advice . . . . . . see below:

Some good advice on why 100m is the limit.


Baldrick UK > ouch
Koselig > Never move more than 100m in a t1 indy
Raidjinn > no never move more than 20mil
Baldrick UK > good points
Baldrick UK > how much was i moving?  400m?
Koselig > Abit over 400m
Baldrick UK > ah, hope you got enough of it :)
Koselig > Vexors usually kill stuff 120++ and nadoes from 250 and up, depending on how bored they are
Baldrick UK > ok, thanks for all that
Koselig > Nice doing business with you and good luck in the future. Im off to bed. I hope you will prosper in the future
Baldrick UK > thanks @)
Baldrick UK > )
Koselig > Check out freight services btw, lots cheaper than getting ganked :P
Koselig > o/


Way back in May 2013 i was advising using Courier Contracts for cargo over 100m ISK.  I should take my own advice!

What not to Haul in one shot

I don't often single events out in Eve as an example of what not to do - but this has to be an exception.  I spotted this on reddit.

This zkillboard link shows an Iteron Mark V being killed with cargo of 48bn ISK in it.

That had to hurt.

We could perhaps question the values assigned to the Blueprint Copies - but nonetheless, that is a lot to be transporting in a mere hauler like that.

As ever, i advise using courier contracts to have items hauled including this discussion right at the start of my business on Eve on why using courier contracts makes good business sense.

I have also discussed why i am willing to pay much more to get my items to their destination within 24 hours.

There is a video of a presentation at Eve Fanfest 2015 from a Red Frog member.

Hauling Corporations - a review for my business needs

I have written many times on why i use haulers rather than haul items myself, including this discussion right at the start of my business on Eve on why using courier contracts makes good business sense.

Furthermore, i have also discussed why i am willing to pay much more to get my items to their destination within 24 hours.

Indeed, there is a video of a presentation at Eve Fanfest 2015 from a Red Frog member.

Bottom line, is that it makes good business sense for me to use courier contracts to transfer my items from one location to another.


I am reviewing who i use to haul my items

I have now come to a point in my business where i am looking at all the options on hauling my items from Jita to the other trade hubs.  This has been caused my some people leaving in my favourite hauling corporation PushX which has prompted me to make a review of what else is out there.

Now, to put this all in perspective, PushX has undertaken 690 courier contracts for me, hauling 845bn ISK of items, costing me 16.5bn (i.e. 2%), all have been delivered on time (within 24 hours) and only 3 have failed (2 recently).  Job well done, in my books.


My conclusion

Read below for all the discussion - but i plan on trying out New Evolution Express for all courier contracts from Jita to the other trade hubs, and the independent individuals for all other contracts for now.


My Aims

I only really want three things from a hauler:

1) A known price (it is part of my cost of doing business)

2) A known time frame to deliver my items (an item not on the market can not sell)

3) Reliability (this is key - it must get to the destination time and time again, within the stated timeframe)

The Hauling Corporations

As far as i can tell, there are 5 options.

• New Evolution Express
• PushX Industries
• Red Frog Freight
• Haulers Channel
• Independent individuals

New Evolution Express

New Evolution Express is a very new hauling corporation but experienced.  Made up of prior members of PushX.

Website not up to full functionality yet - i need to put in the number of jumper whereas the other two corporation websites work that out themselves from the starting and ending system.  That is annoying.

Offers two speeds of service: normal = 3 days to for contract to expire + 1 day to complete; and Priority = 1 day to for contract to expire + 1 day to complete.

Offers a menu of pricing depending on Standard vs Jump Freight vs Thera / Collateral / Space Security / Volume / Time.  At first glance, the menu is mind boggling (gets easier to understand with time), i always find it best to go straight to the price quote page.

Can go from anywhere to anywhere.  Maximum volume 845,000 m3 (standard freight, highsec).

Customer Support Channel: very new but seems well staffed.

Reliability: very new but so far so good.


PushX Industries

PushX Industries is a long time established corporation.

Very user friendly website - the best there is.  I just need to input the starting system + ending system + volume + collateral and i am quoted the normal & rush price.  Everything is well laid out.  It just sets the standard.

Offers two speeds of service: normal = 3 days to for contract to expire + 1 day to complete; and Rush = 1 day to for contract to expire + 1 day to complete.

Offers a menu of pricing depending on Standard vs Jump Freight / Collateral / Space Security / Volume / Time.  Again, at first glance, the menu is mind boggling (gets easier to understand with time), i always find it best to go straight to the price quote page.

Can go from anywhere to anywhere.  Maximum volume 1,125,000 m3 (standard freight, highsec).

Adding to that PushX has another website that tracks how your courier contract is progressing.  Hence, you can see if your contract has been accepted / delivered without logging into the game.  Another major plus.

Customer Support Channel: was excellent now poor after many members left to start New Evolution Express.

Reliability: was excellent but has recently tailed off, again, after many members left to start New Evolution Express.


Red Frog Freight

Red Frog Freight is the oldest hauling corporation in Eve.  Has various divisions: Red Frog Freight to haul cargo in highsec worth up to 1bn; Black Frog Freight to haul cargo in low sec; Blue Frog Freight to haul cargo valued at over 1bn ISK in Highsec.

The corporation operating as different divisions does make it look optically complicated but gets easier with time.

Website basic but very straight forward to use.  Probably the easiest to use.

Offers two speeds of service: normal = 3 days to for contract to expire + 1 day to complete; and Rush = 1 day to for contract to expire + 1 day to complete.

However, the Rush Jobs are limited to highsec jobs where collateral is under 1bn ISK.

Offers a menu of pricing depending on highsec vs lowsec / Collateral / Time.  The least complicated menu of pricing given it does not charge differently for different volume.

Can go from anywhere to anywhere.  Maximum volume 845,000 m3 (standard freight, highsec, less than 1bn collateral).

Customer Support Channel: Not sure myself but only hear good things about it.

Reliability: Not sure myself but only hear good things about it.



Haulers Channel

I have never used this chat channel "Haulers Channel" to highlight the courier contracts i have on offer.

From what i can tell, it seems populated and active with a focus on intel and tips for haulers as well as highlighting courier contracts for offer.

The discussion i see on hauling is high quality and well worth sitting in there if you are a hauler.


Independent individuals

This is really the courier contract system where you just put your contract on the open market.

I do use this typically to transfer items from a trade hub to Jita.  Perversely, i find it is done in a few hours and typically much cheaper than if one of the hauling corporations were to do it.

Indeed, another blogger MoxNix at MerchantMonarchy stated that they always used the public courier contracting system given the jobs were always done on time and much cheaper than the hauling corps.


Price Comparison between the Hauling Corporations

Given i operate in Highsec only, i input a variety of courier contracts to compare prices.  There is one consistent winner for the options i chose is New Evolution Express - it seems as if they are at a constant discount to the other hauling corps in an attempt to gain market share as a new entrant:



Jita >>> Dodixie, 900m collateral, 100m3 volume, Rush/Priority Job

New Evolution Express 22.2m
PushX Industries 23.6m
Red Frog Freight 99.0m


Jita >>> Dodixie, 2.5bn collateral, 100m3 volume, Rush/Priority Job

New Evolution Express 33.0m
PushX Industries 36.6m
Blue Frog Freight none offered


Jita >>> Dodixie, 2.5bn collateral, 50000m3 volume, Rush/Priority Job

New Evolution Express 39.0m
PushX Industries 43.8m
Blue Frog Freight none offered



Jita >>> Hek, 900m collateral, 100m3 volume, Rush/Priority Job

New Evolution Express 24.0m
PushX Industries 25.8m
Red Frog Freight 123.0m


Jita >>> Hek, 2.5bn collateral, 100m3 volume, Rush/Priority Job

New Evolution Express 37.5m
PushX Industries 42.0m
Blue Frog Freight none offered


Jita >>> Hek, 2.5bn collateral, 50000m3 volume, Rush/Priority Job

New Evolution Express 45.0m
PushX Industries 51.0m
Blue Frog Freight none offered

Eve Fanfest 2015 - Courier Contracts

In this year's Eve Fanfest a member of Red Frog gave a talk.  Red Frog is one of the Hauling corporations in Eve Online that make their money by hauling contracts made privately to them from A to B.  Personally, i use Push Industries.

It is a 24 minutes presentation and a very good watch:

At 2:20 in he talks about what a Courier Contract is, how it works and how collateral works.

At 5:40 in he talks about what Red Frog is, what they fly and each of the three divisions (2 Hi-Sec, 1 Low-Sec).

At 10:00 in he talks about gankers and the maths of ganking.

At 14:00 in he talks about recruitment and the insurance scheme they have.

At 17:00 in he opens it up for questions from the floor.

Push Industries - Contract Tracker

Push Industries, which is the ingame service (corp) i use to haul my items from one alt to another, recently launched a service which allows players to see the status of their contracts in or out of game called MyPushX.

I can use it to see where in the queue my courier contract is and so get an idea of how long it will take before it is accepted.

All it requires is for each alt that uses it to create an API Key (access mask 0) and then register with the site.

Given i use my corp to set up the courier contracts then i don't need to use this site ingame - i can readily use the ingame contract tab to check.

However, out of game it is useful - no more do i need to log in to Eve to check the status of my courier contracts.  I can use my ipad to check the status and then log in to post the items once Push Industries has delivered them.

It also has a stats page that shows your total history per character,

To date, i have created 601 contracts with Push Industries, total fees paid of 13.8bn ISK, total collateral Push Industries have put up is 714.1bn ISK, total volume hauled 2.7m m3 and total warps 9536.

I suspect there is more that can be done with this - for example, an email could be sent once a contract is completed.

But, so far, i like it.

A Sense of Humour

Whilst putting a courier contract together i obviously tried to send it to the where i was.

Below is what popped up:

Seems someone indeed has a sense of humour!

Creating an Eve Financial System - or how to create more enjoyable ISK sinks

The Eve Online economy has a financial system of sorts but none in which the mass player base can participate in.

The forums are a venue for the issuance of loans but a select few participate given the risks involved (theft).  There is no banking system (tried, failed though some trying to start) and there is no easy way to issue shares or bonds.

The main issue is trust - i.e. the likelihood that the borrower just walks off with the ISK and refuses to repay is quite high in Eve (Jita local chat is a case in point).  There are trusted third parties that can act as an escrow but they are limited.

However, if players or corporations could issue shares or bonds (i.e. borrow from others) and there was some enforcement mechanics behind it, much like the current contract system or market escrow system, then i suspect this would lead to a major ISK sink , but an enjoyable one.  It could also lead to the start of a financial system in Eve Online in which the mass player base could participate in.

More in the Sink below (i suspect it would come from lost ventures) but first the mechanics.

Or - how to enhance the current contract system to make loans work mechanically:

Lets say i was willing to lend someone 1bn ISK at 10% interest for 3 months, secured on 1.3bn ISK of items as collateral.  The trick is to ensure i can't just run off with the 1.3bn of items if the borrower is able to pay me the loan + interest within 3 months.

I would need an item exchange contract (we can do that) combined with a time based item exchange contract (we can't do that right now), and issued at the same time as part of a combined contract (i.e. the borrower and lender must enter into both contracts at the same time to make this work - we can't do that either).

Step 1 - The item exchange contract would see me pay the borrower 1bn ISK and the borrower give me 1.3bn of Items (specified by me).  We can do that today with the current contract system.

Step 2 - The time based item exchange contact (set up at the same time) would be for the borrower to pay me 1.1bn within 3 months (i.e. the 1bn ISK + 10%) in exchange for those same 1.3bn of items.

Hence, on day 1 the borrower receives 1bn of ISK and 1.3bn of items are effectively put into escrow and only come to me after 3 months if the other player has not repaid me 1.1bn ISK.

Assuming my thinking is correct - the mechanics should hold.  It is in the borrowers interest to pay me the 1.1bn ISK and i can't touch the 1.3bn ISK of items until 3 months is up and the borrower has not repaid me.

ISK Sink:

And this is where it would get interesting.  There would now be a clear financial incentive for the borrower to repay the ISK + interest and the lender would be well protected (essentially via an over collateralized loan).

Therefore, unless the lender does not mess up with their collateral requirements they will not lose ISK.

The borrower, if unable to pay, would though lose their items and they would be sold by the lender to (hopefully) buy orders in the market.  Using the above example essentially 1.3bn ISK of items are now longer available to the borrower to use as new collateral to get new loans + 1.3bn of buy orders have gone and so presumably those prices have fallen + therefore there is not a requirement to manufacture those 1.3bn of items.  In all, the Eve economy has shrunk due to this borrower defaulting which leads to an effective ISK sink . . . . . though admittedly in the beginning it will really be items not in use being re-circulated into the Eve market - but this would allow corporations to put those dead assets in play to allow them to borrow funds to wage war!



Worth noting, that the appearance of this mechanic in the game would create much more than just the ability to issue loans.  It would also allow the appearance of forward trades (i.e. derivatives).

Lets say that you wanted to buy 1bn of Tritanium at todays prices, paying in 1 months time for your manufacturing schedule but you feared the price was going to go up by 10%.  And lets say that I took the view that the price of Tritanium was going to be flat or be lower in 1 months time.

Hence, as we stand today i would be happy to deliver to you the Tritanium in a months time for 1bn ISK at todays prices. . . . . i believe i would make a profit and you would feel you saved from buying at a higher price.

And lets also say that you were willing to pay 20m ISK now to guarantee paying that price for the Tritanium (i.e. you pay 2% of the buy price = 1.02bn ISK in total).

Using the above mechanics:

Step 1 - the first item exchange contact would be for you to pay me 20m ISK and for me to exchange 300m ISK of items.

Step 2 - the second time based contract (but issued at the same time) would be in a months time you paying me 1bn ISK (so 1.02bn ISK in total) and the 300m ISK of items returned for me exchanging with you the 1bn worth of Tritanium at day 1 prices.

(If i break the second time based contract you get 300m ISK of items for 20m ISK which will cover the rise in the price of the Titanium.)

So, if the price has indeed gone up by say 15% you will have saved 13% (15% price rise less the 2% cost of this contract).  If the price has fallen by 5% then i will have gained 7% (5% less cost to buy the tritanium + the 2% fee paid to me).

Of course, if the price is more than 30% higher then i will not pay the second part of the contract and so lose the 300m ISK of items and we both lose but you are least are 280m (300 - 20) better off.

Using Rush Jobs leads me to better profits.

Push Industries hauls items for third parties around Eve (similar to Red Frog).  Push Industries has two types of fee: a normal rate or a Rush Job rate.

Below, i will demonstrate why paying 20.8m ISK for the Rush Job to haul items from Jita to Dodixie is better than paying 5.8m ISK normal rate to haul the same items from Jita to Dodixie.

Consider the scenario.  I have bought 400m ISK of items from Jita, i believe i can make an operating margin of 20% on them when i sell them in Dodixie (i.e. i hope to make total sales of 500m ISK from those items leaving a profit before broker fees and sales taxes of 100m ISK).

I also know it will likely take me 10 days to sell all these items.

I have 3 choices on getting these items from Jita to Dodixie.

1) I can haul them myself - that is the fastest but the least safe but at least all the profits go to me.

2) I can contract the hauling to Push Industries (or anyone else) and pay 5.8m ISK and it will take up to 3 days to get there.  And so i keep 94m ISK of the profits before broker fees and sales taxes.

3) I can contract the hauling to Push Industries and pay a premium to get it there in less than 24 hours (often in less than 5).  In this case i would pay 20.8m ISK and so keep 79m ISK of the profits before broker fees and sales taxes.

Now, add in one key point - making ISK is a function of 3 things: the profit margin on each sale; how often you sell these items; and how much capital you put into your business.  Essentially, profit over time is the profit margin made on sales x speed of sale x capital.  And what we want to do is optimise all three parts of that nice equation.


Lets assume i don't haul them myself - takes time that i would rather be devoting somewhere else and over time i will be ganked.

So, lets look at what happens here under the second and third options (and for this example lets ignore broker fees and sales taxes):


Assume i use the normal hual rate:

on day 0 i buy the 400m ISK of items from Jita.

By paying the normal hauling rate of 5.8m ISK i get them to Dodixie on day 3 and put them up for sale for 500m ISK.  By day 13 (3+10) i am sold out, making sales of 500m ISK, and so buy them again from Jita for 400m ISK.  I again pay the normal rate of 5.8m ISK to get them to Dodixie on day 16 (13+3) and put them up for sale for 500m ISK.  By day 26 (16+10) i am sold out, making sales of 500m ISK, and so buy them again from Jita for 400m ISK.  I again pay the normal rate of 5.8m ISK to get them to Dodixie on day 29 and by day 39 i am sold out, making sales of 500m ISK.

in all, it took me 39 days to make sales of 500x3 = 1,500, incur buying costs of 400x3 = 1,200 leaving profits of 300m ISK from which i paid hauling fees of 5.8x3 = 17.4m ISK leaving me profits of 282.6m ISK.


and now lets assume i use Rush Jobs instead:

on day 0 i buy the 400m ISK of items from Jita.

By paying the Rush Job hauling rate of 20.8m ISK i get them to Dodixie on day 0 and put them up for sale for 500m ISK.  By day 10 (0+10) i am sold out, making sales of 500m ISK, and so buy them again from Jita for 400m ISK.  I again pay the Rush Job rate of 20.8m ISK to get them to Dodixie on day 10 (10+0) and put them up for sale for 500m ISK.  By day 20 (10+10) i am sold out, making sales of 500m ISK, and so buy them again from Jita for 400m ISK.  I again pay the Rush Job rate of 20.8m ISK to get them to Dodixie on day 20 (20+0) and by day 30 i am sold out, making sales of 500m ISK.  I again buy the items for 400m ISK from Jita, pay the Rush Job rate of 20.8m ISK to get them to Dodixie and put them up for sale on day 30 (30+0) in Dodixie.  By day 40 i have sold them all making sales of 500m ISK.

in all, it took me 40 days to make sales of 500x4 = 2,000, incur buying costs of 400x4 = 1,600 leaving profits of 400m ISK from which i paid hauling fees of 20.8x4 = 83.2m ISK leaving me profits of 316.8m ISK.

. . . . . and these things scale very nicely.  If instead of buying 400m ISK from Jita i was buying 2bn ISK of items to sell at 2.5bn at Dodixie, the normal hauling rate would be 11.5m ISK a time vs the Rush Job rate of 26.5m ISK.  Running through the above example with these new numbers means the Rush Job option would make profits of 1.9bn ISK vs the Normal Hauling rate of 1.5bn ISK.


In all, the Rush Jobs have ensured i get my items on sale very quickly and so improved my [speed of sale] which has resulted in me making more profit.

One month old

I am about to go on a business trip for a few days so seems a suitable time to wrap up on my first month.

Having to reinvest (what feels like serious isk to me) on a daily basis now: I got home today from work to find 750m ISK in my wallet and i need to reinvest that before i leave tomorrow.

“Rush Job” contracts may actually be the way forward: I was able to buy 680m isk worth of products at Jita and i did a “Rush Job” courier contract with PushX Industries.

For an extra 15m isk (20.8m isk courier fee vs the normal 5.8m) i can have my items couriered within a day.  In this case i checked on the PushX chat window and they suggested almost straight away.  And indeed within 1 to 2 hours it was with me.

If this works then i may consider using “Rush jobs” more often.  If i was to courier up to 1bn ISK then it would cost be 2.1% (20.8m / 1000m) vs the normal 0.6% (5.8/1000) but i would get it almost immediately.  Currently i generally wait a day before the items are couriered.  I suspect if i did the maths then i would discover that the extra speed at which i can put the “Rush Job” couriered items to sell in Dodixie will more than make up for the extra cost.  i.e. my isk would be reinvested back into the market 12 to 24 hours faster – that could be serious money.

Skilling up: I finished training Accounting 4 and so i now pay 0.90% sales tax.  Hence i now pay 0.80% to post a sell order and then 0.90% sales tax when it sells.

I started training Wholesale 5 to give me an additional 16 active order slots and will allow me to start training Tycoon which adds 32 active order slots per level.  It will take me 20 days to train Wholesale 5 – i was a little hesitant but i know i will be away for a week in the last week in June so i have a clear 15 days before i even consider starting a new account (at which point i may also start training up an alt on this account to do manufacturing), so no harm in starting Wholesale.  If i stop the training i will still keep the skill points and at some stage i can complete the final 5 days.  In actual fact, i don’t really need it but i do have a spare 15 days so i may as well get my trading skills up.

One month in: As i stand after one month (of which i was away for 5 days) my wealth is now 2.6bn isk – and that includes a 20% provision against the 3.1bn isk of sell orders i have to reflect the fact that i may need to reduce prices as competition comes in to undercut.

And this is the first time i have posted more than 3bn isk of sell orders.  I seem to recall that my first 1bn felt like a milestone!

I am coming close to the point where i am struggling to find items to buy – so feels like i need to do more research into items to sell.  I have started buying more of the same items to make sure i don’t lose out on sales.  But that just makes the problem worse – i don’t buy new items in Jita until i have completely sold out in Dodixie, hence i gather more isk as i wait for a line to sell out.

I am currently using 71 of my 125 order slot limit.  I may investigate some minor station trading (that is, putting buy and sell orders for the same item in one station and so just trading within that station).

Looking forward to starting an additional account: Once i get to a point where i have 600m isk that i cant reinvest then i will start a new account and have it financed with plex.  That new account will also be a trader so i can build up my isk monthly inflows to finance my other activities.  I suspect i will be starting a new account at the end of June.  Really looking forward to the other parts of business / industry in Eve though.  The ISK making blogs on the blog roll cover many of those areas very well.


Current wealth is  2,573,215,984 ISK made up from:

• Items for sale 3,060,382,299 ISK
• less a 20% provision 612,076,460 ISK*
• items in storage for sale 87,300,000 ISK
• items in transit 0 ISK
• ISK in wallet 37,610,145 ISK

I don't count assets I use in the course of my business such as ships, fittings etc nor do I add back any expenses such as skills purchased etc.  The wealth I disclose is made up of items that are ISK or are in the process of being converted to ISK.

* I take a 20% provision against the items I am selling.  Eve calculates wealth by adding up the value of the sell orders hence it is possible to increase your wealth by buying an item for 100m ISK and putting a sell order for 120m ISK (in this case your wealth would increase by 20m ISK).  For me, I want my wealth to be calculated at cost until i finally hold it as ISK.  I know that the value of my sell orders will likely fall over time as I update my orders downwards as competition reduces their prices before my items are sold.  Hence the 20% provision is my best guess as to what the maximum reduction I would need to make to my sell orders as a whole before they are sold.

The Jita Dodixie Alt setup

The Scene

• My Main character is in Dodixie – able to post 53 items.
• My new alt (no skills) is in JIta

The Aim

• To buy items in Jita, transport them to Dodixie, and put on sale in Dodixie without my Main or Alt ever getting into a ship.

The Process

1. I look at the items I am focusing on and determine what I plan to restock to sell
2. I send the required ISK from my Main to my Alt
3. The Alt buys the items at Jita
4. The Alt then does an “Item Exchange” Contract with my Main to be collected in Jita
5. My Main (still in Dodixie) accepts the items into his Jita hanger and so that Contract is completed
6. My Main (still in Dodixie) then does a Courier Contract with PushX Industries to haul the items to Dodixie
7. Upon the items arriving in Dodixie (delivered by PushX Industries) my Main posts the items for sale in Dodixie

My Alt can only have one Contract running at a time – hence it is no use my Alt contracting PushX Industries to haul because my Alt would be unable to do any further contracts until the items are finally delivered.  My Main though can have 16 Contracts running at time hence i need to load all the Contracts onto my Main.

Courier Corporations

I have two key risks in my Regional Hauling trading strategy.  Firstly i may buy items in Jita and not be able to sell them for a higher price in Dodixie.  Secondly, i may be ambushed when hauling the items from Jita to Dodixie.

There are plenty of simple things i can do to minimise this second risk such as not travelling on auto-pilot, having undocking and docking bookmarks and keep my cargo of low enough value to make an ambush uneconomic.

If someone was to consider ambushing me (ganking, in Eve parlance) then they know they will lose their ship to the Hi-Sec police (called Concord) and so they will need a second character or account near by to loot my wreak.  Hence, the attacker is making an economic decision firstly and then a military decision secondly.

My ship, a Catalyst, is not strong hence it would not take a big ship and weapons to gank me before the Concord police could come to my aid.  Thus, i am limiting my cargo value to 100m ISK.  Below that i can quite happily travel on autopilot.  Above that i need to take care.  My hauling strategy is to firstly avoid being scanned (will only last so long) and secondly not to make myself a target.

Or i can use a player corporation that is dedicated to hauling cargo for other players.  They know what they are doing and are very good at it.  They have made it into their own specialised industry.  There are two corporations that i know of: PushX Industries and Red Frog Freight.

Hence i am trying PushX industries for the first time to transport 130m ISK of cargo for me from Jita to Dodixie (which i can sell for about 184m ISK in Dodixie).  It will cost me 5.8m ISK (=3.2% of sales), so will increase my cost of selling by 2x – but given the margins i am already making and given the Courier Cost will only rise once the collateral gets over 1bn ISK this is a good plan.  To put this in perpective, lets assume i gave a contract to haul 1bn ISK of cargo that i could sell for a 20% markup then the hauling fees would only be 0.5% of sales (=5.8m/1.2bn).

In Eve Online the game mechanics allow for Courier Contracts between individuals and Corporations (player to player, player to corporation, corporation to corporation, corporation to player).  The contract is protected by using collateral – when a contract is accepted collateral must be put up by the accepting player (which is pre-determined by the player setting up the contract, as was the award fee) which is returned when the contract is completed, or goes to the player that set up the contract if the contract fails.

PushX Industries is a corporation that has been set up by players to courier items for other players.  They have the skills, ships and knowledge to make this work.  They charge by the number of warps they need to make (number of jumps +1) with reference to the size of the cargo and amount of collateral.  They can courier across Hi-Sec, Low-Sec and Null-Sec – they charge more for couriering outside of Hi-Sec.  They protect their couriers by using player alts to do the couriering (so not the named alts in the corporation) which protects them from spies and war declarations.  If a character of mine had sufficient skills and i enjoyed couriering i could apply to join.

At 13:20 Eve time on 26^th May i set up a contract to courier 130m ISK of items (only taking up 104m3 of space) from Jita to Dodixie.  Contract set to expire in 3 days and complete within 3 days.  If the items are delivered on time i will pay 5.8m ISK.  The collateral i put on the contract was 130m ISK (which i will get if the contract is accepted but the delivery fails).

By 15:49 Eve time on the same day it had been delivered:

 

and an email sent to me:

All in two and a half hours, which is quick.

Certainly, for cargo over 100m ISK this is will now be fully integrated into my Regional Hauling strategy.